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SO,
YOU WANT TO GO SOLAR?
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A Decision-Making Guide
by Jennifer Barker
So, you've decided you want to go solar. You've analyzed your
energy use, implemented efficiency measures, and you're ready to
pursue the installation wholeheartedly. Of course, you have certain
ideas about doing stuff yourself, saving money, and oh, you want to
have it completed as soon as possible.
Is this feasible? Can you have everything you want, or do you
have to make tradeoffs? Only you can say what you want to do, and
what you are capable of, but there are many factors to consider.
Here's a simple little flowchart to help you make the decisions&ldots;
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Cost
Assessment
So now we have another aspect of the installation to consider:
cost. This is a major consideration in most people's decision-making
process, and I know that most of you are familiar with the
"cheap, good, easy" triangle. It looks something like this ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------->>
What this means is that if you want something cheap, it must
either be difficult, or if it is both cheap and easy to do, the
results will be something less than "good." If you want a
result that is both good and easy (for you), you must be willing to
pay the appropriate amount to have someone do the work for you. If
you want something that is both cheap and good, you must be willing
to put the effort in to do a difficult project (but the results can
be very rewarding). |
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Planning
It helps to plan everything carefully to estimate how much
time your project will take. There are several phases to installing a
solar electric system: designing the system and ordering components,
preparing the infrastructure and support structures, and the
installation itself. Special-order equipment can take six weeks to
two months, and if you are prepared for that, you can use the
intervening time profitably to make sure everything is ready when it arrives.
False
Economy
False economy refers to an action which saves money at the
beginning, but over a longer period of time results in more money
being wasted than was saved. For example, one false economy often
seen in solar electric installations is the purchase (or continued
use of) improperly sized or non-MPPT (old technology) charge
controllers. Their use is false economy because if the owner spent a
few hundred dollars more on a charge controller designed to maximize
the solar array's performance, it would increase the power output by
more than the added cost for the controller.
It's also false economy to skimp on features that will help
you receive a tax credit, like permitting and inspecting as required
for an Oregon Residential Energy Tax Credit. An Oregon homeowner is
considered qualified to take out a building permit and do electric or
plumbing work on their own residence. The signed-off permit is the
state's seal of approval on the installation's compliance with
appropriate building codes. The $3.00 per installed watt Residential
Energy Tax Credit, up to a maximum of $6,000, goes a long way towards
paying for increased safety and performance features.
If a person works backwards, deciding how much energy they
want to produce before assessing needs, then asking how to acquire
the hardware most cheaply, they are asking the wrong question.
True economy is:
Cheap
Energy is the Problem, Not the Answer
We are used to deciding how much energy we want (based on how
much we are accustomed to using) and then asking how we can produce
that amount as cheaply as possible.
For us to be successful at living with renewable energy, we
have to turn this question around and ask: what do I want to
accomplish with energy, and how much energy do I really need to get
that done? Then we must ask, how do I produce that amount of energy
most effectively, and how do I coexist with my energy system so that
I work most effectively with the amount it is producing under the
conditions of the current day?
If we ask these questions, we will find that living with
renewable energy is really not at all "expensive" and that
we can easily have what we need to be comfortable and productive. Can
we find eternal happiness with our solar systems? That part is up to us!
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Northwest
News Roundup
Feed-in
Tariffs Proposed for Oregon.Oregonians for
Renewable Energy Policy (OREP) is helping to design and support
adoption of Feed-In Tariff (FIT) policies for Oregon. Their goal is
to produce good social, economic and environmental outcomes at
reasonable costs. OREP is working with the Oregon Public Utilities
Commission (PUC) to put forward a "straw proposal" as a
beginning point for an Administrative Rule for a Feed-In Tariff bill.
FITs will only affect customers of Publicly Owned Utilities (PGE,
Pacific Power, & Idaho Power). OREP contacts are mostly by email
and conference call. If you are interested in participating in the
process, contact Judy Barnes jbarnes~at~hevanet.com.
Oregon
Business Energy Tax Credit Cost More Than Planned. The
Oregon Department of Energy is scrutinizing the Business Energy Tax
Credit (BETC), now projected to cost the state $163 million in the
current two-year budget. An investigation by the Oregonian newspaper
found the tax credit cost many times more than originally projected,
and that some companies abused the credits or failed to meet state
requirements. In August, Gov. Ted Kulongoski ordered a review of the
tax credit program, and has now proposed to cap the program's cost,
prioritize projects within the cap and implement other accountability
measures. "This report outlines smart, short-term improvements
to the Business Energy Tax Credit program that will ensure continued
growth in manufacturing and energy efficiency, but creates an
alternative approach for more mature industries like large-scale
wind," Governor Kulongoski said. Under his recommendations, the
current 50% model would remain in place for projects under $100,000,
but the tax credit for large-scale wind energy projects would be
phased out by 2014. http://governor.oregon.gov/Gov/press_2009.shtml
Bob
Maynard Joins OutBack Power Systems. Long-time
EORenew supporter Bob Maynard has been appointed to OutBack Power
System's Board of Directors. Maynard has previously served as board
member and President for the Oregon Solar Energy Industries
Association and the Josephine County Renewable Energy Task Force.
Maynard was the founder of Energy Outfitters, an Oregon company which
grew to become one of the top five national solar distribution
companies by 2004. "I look forward to working with OutBack as we
focus on customer driven product development," said Maynard. www.outbackpower.com/news/ |
